Warning: Godavari Districts At High Risk Of Cancer:- National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad and the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad has conducted a study on East and West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh. They found that people are close to oil and gas drilling sites and the soils are affecting the health of the people living in these regions are at high risk of cancer.

Apart from the oil drilling sites, there are also sources to contaminate the soils of these districts through heavy metals, which will spread to agriculture. The heavy metals are carcinogenic as well as non-carcinogenic. According to the study, arsenic, chromium, copper, nickel, lead and zinc are heavy near the drilling sites. The level of these metals is hundreds of times more than the recommended.

These heavy metals are always silent killers and will be a dangerous threat to the people living around. There is more risk of cancer in children and adults. Arsenic and Chromium soils are Total Carcinogenic Risk (TCR). Adding to the emergency, the metals are about to reach the groundwater, this is an urgent situation for the government to respond over.

Areas covered for this study are Konalapalli, Tallakodu, Prathallamaraka, Nagendrapuram, Arjunudupalem, Sitharamapuram, Elamanchili, Mandapeta, Kalvacherla, Yedurulanka, Challapalli, Bantumilli, Malleshwaram, and Mogallu.